Small airbrushes are ideally suited for precision painting and other artistic endeavors. The small size and light weight of the equipment allows ease in holding and longer use before fatiguing the user's hand. However, as a result of the small size needed, the airbrush, which includes a large number of very small precision parts, is generally difficult to manufacture and assemble, and is also difficult to disassemble for cleaning.
In many prior art air brushes the most precise and tiny parts are found in the crown. The crown comprises a head with a post connecting the head to the front body, a paint tip and a regulator. The post comprises a tube through which the paint needle and paint pass in the head. The paint tip, a tiny and highly specialized part, is screwed into the post and accepts a paint regulating needle. The paint tip comprises the final passage for paint prior to the mixing of the paint and air. In many prior art airbrushes, the paint tip is constructed with threads so that it can be screwed into the distal end of the post. The assembly of the paint tip to the airbrush head, via the post, further required the use of beeswax. The beeswax was heated and applied by a skilled technician to the threads of the paint tip so as to form a leak-proof seal of the walls of the post and the paint tip when the threads of the paint tip and post were inter-engaged. The head and paint tip assembly would then be attached to the front body of the airbrush.
In order to clean thoroughly an airbrush constructed in this manner, the user would have to break the seal between the paint tip and the head, clean the parts and then reassemble the parts in the manner described above. Many users, without the materials, tools or skills to do this operation, were forced to return the paint tip and head assembly. This generally caused the user to be without the use of the airbrush for a considerable amount of time or necessitated the purchase of replacement interchangeable paint tip and head assemblies.
Further, in many of the prior art small airbrushes, the assembly of the remaining parts of the crown about the delicate paint tip and post assembly often caused the elongated paint tip and post assembly to be bent or broken. For example, the incorrect placement of a regulator during assembly could cause the paint tip to apply pressure to the post, bending the post or taking the paint tip and post assembly out of alignment. Because the alignment of the paint tip to the orifice of the regulator is critical to the operation of the airbrush, such misalignment is fatal to an airbrush.
In many larger model airbrushes, such as the CRESCENDO.TM. 175T airbrush by Badger Air-Brush Co. of Franklin Park, Ill., this problem is obviated by the increased size of the device. In the CRESCENDO.TM.airbrush, the paint tip is seated in the airbrush body and a head is attached to the body. The paint tip emerges through the head and is held to the airbrush body by the head. A regulator is then attached to the head. This three part system, paint tip, head and regulator, works well in larger air brushes.
One solution to the problem posed by the small airbrush was to devise a paint tip without threads for use with crown components that would be interchangeable on prior art airbrush front bodies. This was accomplished by Badger Air-Brush Co. in 1992. In the Badger airbrush, a head with a post defined therethrough was attached to the airbrush body. The proximal end of the post of the head connected the head to the paint supply of the airbrush and allowed, at the distal end of the post, the seating of a paint tip. The distal end of the post of the head was shaped to accept a paint tip in such a way that post and paint tip conformed to each other to allow an almost leak proof coupling without the use of beeswax. A regulator was then attached to hold the paint tip to the head. This design formed a three part system: head, paint tip and regulator.
However, because of the small size of the airbrushes, the regulators, which are concomitantly small, often became clogged during a painting project. The user must then stop and clean the regulator to unclog the tiny passages or replace the crown. It has been discovered that when the regulator is removed from these prior art Badger airbrushes to remove a clog, the paint tip no longer is held in place and may fall out of the head. This might result in the loss of the tiny paint tip and paint to spill from the airbrush. As the need to unclog the regulator is relatively frequent in the use of small airbrushes, this three part system, although solving many of the problems of the prior-art airbrushes, has disadvantages.
We have discovered a novel four-part small airbrush that obviates the need for skilled re-assembly, sealing compounds or large sized parts and allows the use of a non-threaded paint tip that will not fall out when the regulating tip is removed for cleaning. We have also discovered that this four-part system can be substituted onto many prior art airbrush front bodies and handles thereby obviating the need for present airbrush users to purchase entirely new airbrushes. The substitution would give the user all of the benefits of the prior art airbrushes and provide all of the benefits described herein. Further, because the paint tip and the post, of the present invention, are not fixed together, better alignment between the paint tip and the regulating tip can be achieved and fewer posts may be bent or otherwise taken out of alignment.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a small airbrush that is easy to manufacture and assemble.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a small airbrush that can be easily taken apart for cleaning and that can be easily reassembled.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a small airbrush that has a regulating tip that can be removed for cleaning without the loss of the paint tip or the spilling of paint or the misalignment of parts upon reassembly.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a four-part crown that can be readily interchanged with prior art crowns.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.